You have discovered the world of Cooperative Play. Welcome!

About Us

CooperativeGames.com, also known as The Cooperative Games Company, is a little shop in Nevada City California nestled in the great Sierras Nevada mountains. We make and sell products that promote cooperative play. We believe that, through play, we can all easily experience the benefits of cooperation and naturally learn cooperative skills.

Every product in our store has been carefully hand-selected to reflect our values of environmental sustainability and fair trade.

We have personally played with most of the products we sell. Our concern is to bring you only wonderful, workable, quality products that foster the spirit of cooperation.

Who Runs the Store?

This Web shop, www.CooperativeGames.com is owned and managed by me--Suzanne Lyons. I'm an Earth scientist, author, teacher, a mom of two teenagers—and now a business owner too. I came to this business because I love cooperative games and want to share this under-discovered treasure with you!

How Did CooperativeGames.com get started?

Here is the story of how this business came to be: My husband, Pete, and I watched our kids (now 13 and 15) play competitive sports through childhood and vie for the "Principal's Award" in school. While basketball, Spelling Bees and other competitive activities have an upside, they also promote aggression and stress and lead to bruised feelings. Likewise, competitive board games tend to produce feelings of anger and defeat.

As parents, we felt that kids have more than enough exposure to competition. What's needed now is better exposure to the joys of cooperation!

And as an Earth scientist, I am keenly aware that the natural world is in peril. People need to cooperate to find solutions and share resources. Further, as a teacher, I've seen too much competition in the classroom. It disadvantages lots of kids and takes the focus off of real learning and exploring one's true interests.

About a year and a half ago, I had finished writing my second science textbook program "Conceptual Integrated Science", published by Pearson. I felt we did a good job, but I was ready to try something innovative. With this mental backdrop, I attended a workshop for nature educators near my home in Northern California. At the workshop, I met a very interesting woman from the Netherlands—Anne Mijke van Harten. Anne runs a thriving Web shop in the Netherlands specializing in cooperative games (www.EarthGames.nl). Hmmm . . . interesting, I thought. Cooperative Games—fun, educational, and a chance to escape the competitive paradigm all at once. Brilliant!

Anne shared what she knows about the theory and practice of cooperative games with me. She's a play therapist and teacher trainer in Holland. Cooperative games are quite popular in Europe. After our workshop, Anne came to stay at my house for a few days. While here, we discovered that I live close to Ken and Jann Kolsbun. The Kolsbuns are two of the early pioneers of cooperative games. We arranged to meet.

We learned that Ken and Jann had a business called Animal Town that produced a catalog of beautiful toys and games for many years. Animal Town was later named Child and Nature. During Ken and Jann's career, they invented Save the Whales, Nectar Collector, Dam Builders and other classic cooperative games. Many people grew up playing and loving those games—and I hear from you quite often!

When Anne and I met with Ken, we were surprised to learn that Ken's small company was for sale. At the time, my husband had just been laid off from his job (a casualty of the Great Recession). So Pete and I bought the business from Ken and Jan, and here I am talking to you today. We split the cooperative games part of Child and Nature off and run it as The Cooperative Games Company under the Web address www.CooperativeGames.com. That way, we hope to spread awareness of cooperative play and help people find products for cooperation more easily.

Pete and I still collaborate with Ken and Jann and Anne in the Netherlands. We carry a range of cooperative play products. Staples include Animal Town's original Save the Whales. We carry a large selection of wonderful board games from Family Pastimes up in Canada. We have toys like tea sets, blocks, and puzzles that are classic cooperation-promoters too. We carry the adorable new American-made cooperative games from Peaceable Kingdom. We are always looking for great cooperative playthings and cooperative education tools. We are proud to have found many goods one for you—Wildcraft, Snails's Pace Race, the Yoga Garden Game, and more. We have personally read all the books on our site and recommend them highly. I (Suzanne Lyons) am currently writing a book on cooperative play and will be sharing material from it with you on this site.

We look forward to developing more cooperative board games and playthings and educational tools for schools, families, and groups as we go on. We hope to republish Ken and Jann Kolsbun's classic Animal Town games too.

So that is the happy story CooperativeGames.com. It is an exciting time to be in this business. Cooperation has never been more important. And with cooperative games, it has never been more fun!

A note from Ken and Jann:

As the former owners of Animal Town and Child and Nature, we were fortunate to find the perfect couple, Pete Lang and Suzanne Lyons to carry on our business. In selling cooperative playthings (at CooperativeGames.com) and items that connect kids and nature (at ChildandNature.com) Suzanne and Pete will continue to promote the worthy concepts of cooperative play and the benefits of children getting out in nature. After owning and operating Animal Town for over two decades (1976-2000) and Child and Nature/Cooperative Games (2003 to 2009), we are tickled pink that Suzanne and Pete, with their interesting backgrounds and capable skills, are diving right in to the business.

Suzanne is an educator, author, and public speaker. Pete has worked in various companies in the information technology field. They are parents of two children and are keenly aware of the needs of families and children in this very competitive society. We wholeheartedly offer them our support and blessing. We have passed word of them to the great and loyal customers we have had over the years. We want to thank you, our customers, for your support over several decades. We know we have put the company in good hands.

We have moved on to a semi-retired life, but are still inventing board games, writing books, enjoying our grandchildren and promoting cooperative play. It has been a great ride.